Does this patch give any sort of warning if bitcoin isn't being used through a proxy?
I worry that a user will be REALLY careful keeping all their addresses separated so their ordinary transactions are separate from their fund-the-oppositition transactions, and then will get busted by the Secret Police who were eavesdropping on their bitcoin IP traffic at their ISP.
They're clearly separate issues that can be tackled one at a time. This patch increases privacy with respect to all transaction partners, and those that can identify the transaction partners, but does not change anything with respect to eavesdroppers. Which is fine - why conflate the two issues?